Cisco has reported mixed results for its collaboration business in the first quarter of its new financial year.
Sales in the vendor’s Hybrid Work business fell seven percent year on year to $1.1bn. Overall revenue for the networking giant climbed eight percent to $12.9bn.
Hybrid Work category was the only one of Cisco’s seven new reporting categories to see revenue dip.
Cisco was however optimistic about its hybrid work portfolio, with Chief Financial Officer Scott Herren pointing out elements that saw growth despite the overall decline.
“Hybrid work was down seven percent overall, driven by revenue decreases in our perpetual calling, meetings and contact centre offerings,” he said.
“These were partially offset by the ramp of communication platform-as-a-service, and growth in our collaboration devices.
“Within hybrid work, our SaaS revenue continues to show growth of high single digits, driven by cloud calling and contact centre.”
Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins, stressed that the technology required to enable true work-from-anywhere stretches beyond collaboration platforms such as Webex, saying that all of Cisco’s technology – such as networking and security – will be required to enable hybrid work.
“It’s about the holistic capabilities to support a highly distributed workforce that requires new infrastructure architectures, observability and security,” he said.
“Many companies are in the process of defining their hybrid work strategy, which will be based on the technology we build across our networking, security and collaboration portfolios”
“We are also leading the way with new innovation, including our recently expanded Webex portfolio, purpose-built for inclusive experiences across hybrid work, workspaces, and events.”
Cisco’s new categories for reporting quarterly earnings are: Secure, Agile Networks; Hybrid Work; End-to-End Security; Internet for the Future; Optimized Application Experiences; Other Products; and Services.
The networking unit makes up almost half of total sales at just under $6bn.
The Webex brand was mentioned just once on the earnings call featuring Cisco’s leadership team, investors and analysts – when Robbins highlighted recently announced “new innovations” for the platform.
Cisco made a number of product announcements and updates at its recent WebexOne virtual event.
